Categories: Car News

Thanks to General Motors and Toyota, recalls are standard fare in the world of automotive news. The effects of the delay in reporting potential life-threatening flaws in their products is having a domino effect in the industry.

The winter has been hard on dealerships. Combine the harsh weather with an economy that is taking its time to recover and you get low car sales across the board. But the news is not all bad. Comparing the numbers to March of 2013, this year saw a boost in sales for some manufacturers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration routinely runs new cars through a series of tests and rates them with stars according to how well they perform. These tests are designed to determine how the occupants of the vehicle will fare in front end crashes along with side impact and rollover crashes. The highest rating given is five stars. If safety is the most important criteria when you are looking for a car, here are some of the top performers for 2014.

As a part the long-standing tradition of product placement in movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened this weekend with a new star—the new Corvette Stingray. In the movie Scarlett Johansson’s character rocks this GM sports car, while a slew of other General Motors automobiles flood the screen throughout.

The sun came up this morning which is the cue for GM to issue another recall. This one affects 172,000 Chevrolet Cruze vehicles from model years 2013 and 2014. All the cars have a 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. One of the axles can fracture and separate without warning during normal driving.

Toyota has issued a voluntary recall on 119,000 '03/'04 model year Avalon sedans. The problem with these vehicles,according to a statement made last week by Toyota, is that the “front airbag or seat belt pretensioners could inadvertently deploy.”

Tesla cares about its customers, and not only for their physical safety. With all the negative press surrounding the Model S and its alleged propensity for catching fire, Tesla has gone above and beyond to give buyers of this vehicle peace of mind.